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i mostly agree with this. the way you learn how to code is the same way you learn anything else: by doing it. that is, you want to know so bad that you try to

by rguzman 15y ago

i mostly agree with this. the way you learn how to code is the same way you learn anything else: by doing it. that is, you want to know so bad that you try to do it or someone forces you to do it. that's 80% of the battle. mentorship, tools, and pedagogy (and badges!) probably make up the other 20% of the battle, though. codeacademy fits there. i don't know if what they have is effective or not, but surely they are smart enough to know that whether their courses are effective is very important to their business. hence, they will tweak, iterate, and improve to enhance that.

waynecolvin 15y ago
I first seriously(?) learned how to code by finding a used Pascal book and reading it thoroughly. That was some time after getting my first computer and not knowing where to find a compiler! (I'm not counting forgotten Logo from summer class long ago or using elaborate triggers in a MUD.) I had serious learning problems getting far past that unguided. Finally learning C from some lecture notes was a growth spurt though I had looked at some C before that. Trying to calculate the fewest coins to add up to a sum and finding optimal new coin took like a couple weeks! LOL
- losethos 15y ago
  I used to be an annoying customer. If I had an order of $2.56, I might hand them $3.06 cents, so they could give me two quarters. Eventually, it dawned on me that this is rude. Cashiers probably want to zone-out and think about other things. Just give them exact change or whole dollars, but not other amounts. I'm still kinda an ass-hole. I pay in cash. This is hard to remember -- whatever you do, don't change your mind in the middle of an order! That's the worst! ... as in, "Here's $10. No, wait, here's a $5." They will probably think you are trying to con them by confusing you and they might have already selected some bills. God says... C:\TEXT\2CITIES2.TXT ow. That perils had thickened about him fast, and might thicken faster and faster yet, he of course knew now. He could not but admit to himself that he might not have made this journey, if he could have foreseen the events of a few days. And yet his misgivings were not so dark as, imagined by the light of this later time, they would appear. Troubled as the future was, it was the unknown future, and in its obscurity there was ignorant hope. The horrible massacre, days and nights long, which, with
jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
But learn-it-yourself is not the way you "learn anything else". There are almost no other professions where this is the case. Surgeons and lawyers aren't expected to learn on their own. The fact that software engineers are expected to do so seems crazy to me -- and potentially dangerous.
- DanBC 15y ago
  Surgeons are expected to learn by doing; they're just very heavily supervised when they start on live people and they spend time on grapefruit, dead pigs, and dead people first. Reading about a new technique is great. Applying that technique is how a surgeon would learn to do it.
  - jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
    Surgeons don't learn on their own, as many software engineers attempt to. That was my point.

by rguzman 15y ago

waynecolvin 15y ago

I first seriously(?) learned how to code by finding a used Pascal book and reading it thoroughly. That was some time after getting my first computer and not knowing where to find a compiler! (I'm not counting forgotten Logo from summer class long ago or using elaborate triggers in a MUD.) I had serious learning problems getting far past that unguided. Finally learning C from some lecture notes was a growth spurt though I had looked at some C before that. Trying to calculate the fewest coins to add up to a sum and finding optimal new coin took like a couple weeks! LOL

losethos 15y ago
I used to be an annoying customer. If I had an order of $2.56, I might hand them $3.06 cents, so they could give me two quarters. Eventually, it dawned on me that this is rude. Cashiers probably want to zone-out and think about other things. Just give them exact change or whole dollars, but not other amounts. I'm still kinda an ass-hole. I pay in cash. This is hard to remember -- whatever you do, don't change your mind in the middle of an order! That's the worst! ... as in, "Here's $10. No, wait, here's a $5." They will probably think you are trying to con them by confusing you and they might have already selected some bills. God says... C:\TEXT\2CITIES2.TXT ow. That perils had thickened about him fast, and might thicken faster and faster yet, he of course knew now. He could not but admit to himself that he might not have made this journey, if he could have foreseen the events of a few days. And yet his misgivings were not so dark as, imagined by the light of this later time, they would appear. Troubled as the future was, it was the unknown future, and in its obscurity there was ignorant hope. The horrible massacre, days and nights long, which, with

jeffreymcmanus 15y ago

But learn-it-yourself is not the way you "learn anything else". There are almost no other professions where this is the case. Surgeons and lawyers aren't expected to learn on their own. The fact that software engineers are expected to do so seems crazy to me -- and potentially dangerous.

DanBC 15y ago
Surgeons are expected to learn by doing; they're just very heavily supervised when they start on live people and they spend time on grapefruit, dead pigs, and dead people first. Reading about a new technique is great. Applying that technique is how a surgeon would learn to do it.
- jeffreymcmanus 15y ago
  Surgeons don't learn on their own, as many software engineers attempt to. That was my point.